WCP726

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

Dec^r. 6th 1904

My dear Fred¹

I was glad to have your letter last week informing me of receipt of £10 from Janson.² I shall probably hear through Poulton³ who buys, from your moths &c. & at what prices.

I do not think your "warm [MS burned] plan would get out the wood dust from beetles. It will be the fine dust that gets into the joints, under the coxae, in the mouth parts, on the hairy tarsi &c. I think you should sift out all the fine stuff through h[MS burned] gauge of your nets, using o[MS burned] the coarse, & moistening th<em> thoroughly with some [MS burned] [2] so that no more dust rubs off — I am anxiously waiting to hear if the dry season has [illeg.] begun yet & its effect on butterflies.

Have you turned over masses of the dead leaves when wet, to hunt for beetles? I found quantities that way ^{at the beginning of the rains.} Also rotten fruit as baits. But you should be cutting trees down now somewhere in the nearest tree forest, & also in good large 2nd. growth near your house, so as to have places ready directly the weather becomes sunny. No doubt you can [MS burned] permission.

[3] I am making inquiries about the best collecting district in Eastern S. Am. for you to go to when you leave Trinidad, & next mail will give you the result.

I think I have got at a splendid district, more promising in every way than B. Guiana.

I have been reading some of my old letters from the Malay Arch. to Bates,⁴& home, — and looking through my notes &c. I am amazed to see how very few good [4] collecting places I ever found. How many utterly poor and heart-breaking, even though in magnificent forest-country! On the whole, I really do not think I had more than two years really good insect-collecting out of my eight years in the East, and certainly not more than one year of my four in the Amazon! That shows the immense importance of seeking for good localities in a good district.

More next time — Am busy and got a bad cold.

Yours very sincerely | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]